Saturday, April 01, 2017

Today in Comics History, April 1, 2X23: Two-fisted drinking is invented


from The Fuse #16 (Image, November 2015), script by Antony Johnston, pencils and inks by Justin Greenwood, colors by Shari Chankhamma, letters by Ryan Ferrier

Today in Comics History, April 1, 2999: 1990s multiple pouches make a sudden fashion comeback one thousand years later


from Superman Forever one-shot (DC, June 1998), script by Dan Jurgens, pencils by Paul Ryan, inks by Dennis Janke, colors by Glenn Whitmore, color separations by Digital Chameleon, letters by Albert DeGuzman

365 Days of Defiance, Day 91: Events like these are occurring right now on Capitol Hill

...well, maybe not exactly like this, but metaphorically pretty close, because here's Usurper President Benedict Arnold stringing Batgirl and Robin from a gallows and forcing them to solve The Prisoner's Dilemma:


Panels from "The Invader from Hell!" in Batman Family #1 (September-October 1975), script by Elliot S! Maggin, pencils and inks by Mike Grell

To quote another great American statesman, Haw haw! Barbara and Dick have worked together to defeat the deathtrap, both simultaneously sacrificing themselves but saving each other through cooperation. Now that's a team-up!


All your carefully constructed plans are now scrambled eggs, Benedict! And even our mysterious villain — could it be...Satan? (Yes.) — agrees that you can't fight the American Spirit! Especially when the American Spiurit is encased in purple spandex and little green pants.


This is the canonical first Batgirl/Robin team-up. "How did you and Dick meet, Barbara?" "Well, we fought the ghost of American traitor Benedict Arnold, who was brought back to life by Satan wearing a hastily inked g-string." "Ha ha ha ha! No, really, please!" "Um...we met on Tinder."


The Pre-Crisis DC Universe: There's no stopping us now from printing stories about The Devil and Benedict Arnold fighting Batgirl and Robin™.

Today in Comics History, April 1: First appearance, Fake-Ass Mr. Mxyzptlk of Earth-57780


from "There's No Fool Like an April Fool" in Spidey Super Stories #10 (Marvel, July 1975), script by Jean Thomas, pencils by Win Mortimer, inks by Mike Esposito and Tony Mortellaro, letters by Artie Simek

Friday, March 31, 2017

Today in Comics History, March 31, 1959: Dr. Benton Quest has just seen the first Iron Man movie


from newuniversal: 1959 #1 (Marvel/New Universe, September 2008), script by Kieron Gillen, pencils and inks by Greg Scott and Kody Chamberlain, colors by Val Staples, letters by Ed Dukeshire

Today in Comics History, March 31, 1986: Subscribers line up in droves to get cheap issues of Cybernauts


Subscription ad from Marvel Comics cover-dated April 1986

365 Days of Defiance, Day 90: Fight On


Panels from DC: The New Frontier #6 (November 2004); script and pencil by Darwyn Cooke, inks by Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone, colors by Dave Stewart, letters by Jared K. Fletcher

Today in Comics History, March 31, 1988: In the New Universe, weeks become days, and they run in reverse


from The Draft one-shot (Marvel/New Universe, July 1988), script by Mark Gruenwald and Fabian Nicieza; pencils by Herb Trimpe; inks by Kyle Baker, Mike Gustovich, Klaus Janson, Lee Weeks, and Keith Williams; colors by Michael Higgins; letters by Jim Novak

Wait, is it March 31 or two weeks before March 29?!? The world may never know, but this panel would be correct if the caption read March 15 or thereabouts.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

365 Days of Defiance, Day 89: You Work for Me




Panels from Dark Reign: The List: Amazing Spider-Man one-shot (January 2010), script by Dan Slott, pencils by Adam Kubert, inks by Mark Morales, colors by Dean White, letters by Joe Caramagna

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

365 Days of Defiance, Day 88: I thought you could maybe use this today




Panels from The Adventures of Captain America #1 (September 1991); script by Fabian Nicieza; pencils by Kevin Maguire; inks by Joe Rubinstein; colors by Paul Mounts; letters by Richard Starkings

Four issues later...


Panels from The Adventures of Captain America #4 (January 1992); script by Fabian Nicieza; pencils by Kevin Maguire, Steve Carr, and Kevin West; inks by Terry Austin; colors by Paul Mounts; letters by Richard Starkings

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

365 Days of Defiance, Day 87: Stop Admiring Force

Flash! Ah-uh, no, that's the wrong one. Here's Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash, champion of Earth when he and his friends are kidnapped to an alien planet to serve as gladiators in the space-pits!


Panels from "The Planet of Sport" in All-Flash #31 (October-November 1947), script by Robert Kanigher, pencils and inks by Everett E. Hibbard

Say, does the Flash ever, ever, ever, give up?


No! the Flash never, never, never gives up! (Aw, you shoulda guessed that.)


Also you guys: STOP ADMIRING FORCE. That's a great message for today, too. Thanks, Golden Age Flash!

Monday, March 27, 2017

365 Days of Defiance, Day 86: We got a right to start a little fight

Bonanza! The long-running saga of homesteader and patriarch Ben "Adama" Cartwright and his three sons Screwy, Buoy, and Ratatouille, riding the range and setting maps on fire! And I think they have some cows, too. Also: making certain that righteousness and social justice are shotgunned all over the Ollllld West!


Panels from Bonanza (1962 series) #01070-207 (Dell, May-July 1962), script by Gaylord Du Bois, pencils and inks by Tom Gill

A Native American is framed for the attempted murder of a doctor in a hotel room in the Old West, but while everyone from the Sheriff to the Town Drunk™ is eager and ready to hang Charles Red Deer, keen observer of human events and frontier dad Ben Cartwright knows better, and not just about Alpo dog food.


Confronting the rabid lynch mob of the Old West, Ben and sons (Charles Ingalls, Trapper John Sr., and...well, Hoss) immediately spring to the defense of the sixth and fourteenth amendments and especially the very sounds-like-a-case-of-the-Old-West Coffin v. United States, which established the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. In a land of frontier two-gun justice of the Old West, this is as radical a concept as giving a Native American man the same rights as a white man. But Cartwright, as we have seen for fourteen rip-raoring seasons on NBC, is a champion of right and equality. Especially when the Cartwrights get to express those views by pointing their big-ass guns of the Old West.


Cartwright hears the evidence and agrees that Red Deer can be taken into custody as a material witness. he makes the town constable promise to keep Red Deer safe and protected from lynch mobs.


Of course in the very next scene the townspeople form a lynch mob. Geez, the American Constitution just isn't good enough for you people, huh?


YAY DAN BLOCKER personally I would read an entire Silver Age series of Dan Blocker punching a-holes. And then all heck of the Old West breaks out:


The Cartwrights get Red Deer safely away to the Ponderosa (your steak grilled to order and all the baked potatoes you can eat for $7.99) while Ben returns to the scene of the crime of the Old West just in time to catch the true attempted murderer, the son of Dennis Moore (Dennis Moore: galloping through the sward)


So you see, justice on the frontier doesn't always have to end with a rope slung over a tree, thanks to the forward-looking sensibilities and beliefs of the Cartwright family. Ben raised 'em right, to defend the weak, to fight for the people, and to always seek the truth...of the Ollllllllld West.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

365 Days of Defiance, Day 85: Just a man with a man's courage



Panels from King: Flash Gordon #3 (April 2015), script by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, pencils by Lee Ferguson, inks by Lee Ferguson and Marc Deering, colors by Omi Remalante, letters by Simon Bowland